Death of AC/DC’s Lead Singer Bon Scott

The Australian rock band, AC/DC, has been cranking out rock music since all the way back in 1973.

(Photo by Fin Costello/Redferns)

Brothers, Angus and Malcolm Young, formed the band after finding a crazy lead singer named Ronald Belford Bon Scott. The band put out seven records prior to releasing Highway to Hell in 1979. But, Bon Scott was not going to be on that ride with his friends. He was found dead a few short weeks after the Highway to Hell tour.

Malcolm and Angus Young added drummer Phil Rudd to wild-man and notoriously hard-drinking front man Bon Scott for what finally completed AC/DC. Through the early seventies, the band recorded seven albums, performing across Australia and the UK. AC/DC was widely regarded to be a hard rock band that was steadily on its rise.

The release of Highway to Hell andthe accompanying tour had also proved to be a huge success.

On Jan. 27, 1980, the final show of the Highway to Hell tour took place at the Gaumont Theatre in Southampton, U.K. This would also prove to be Scott’s last show.

On Feb. 19, 1980, Bon Scott was found dead.

The legendary AC/DC frontman had been out drinking with friends, but Scott passed out in his car, and ultimately choked to death on his own vomit. He was only 33 years old.

Alistair Kinnear, a friend who had been out with Scott, discovered the body. Kinnear said,

“I left him in the car and rang his doorbell,”

“I was unable to wake Bon, so I rang Silver Smith (Bon’s ex-girlfriend). She said he passed out quite frequently and that it was best just to leave him to sleep it off.” Kinnear claims that he put the seat back, so Scott could lie flat.

The next morning, Kinnear says he discovered that his friend was still in the car, but not breathing.

Kinnear rushed him to King’s College Hospital, but Scott was pronounced dead on arrival. The details that occurred that night remain unclear.

Friend’s and family of the late singer still believe that some type of foul play occurred in the death of Bon Scott. Several people that were with Scott that night maintain to this day that Scott was not drunk when he left the apartment. Speculation as to who could have been involved is also a topic of controversy.

Following the death of friend, and lead singer, Bon Scott, AC/DC had a very tough decision to make in regards to the future of their band. Angus Young said in regards to the death of Scott “for us, it was like losing a member of your family, it’s very, very difficult to go through something like that. Not only is it your friend, it’s also somebody you’ve been working with all that time,”dailymailuk.

A short time later Brian Johnson was hired to take over lead vocals for AC/DC. Their next album, Back in Black, would be dedicated as a tribute to their late friend Bon Scott. The opening bells in “Hells Bells” are for the wild man that brought them to the door of greatness. Back in Black made AC/DC one of the biggest rock and roll acts in the world. The album remains one of the highest selling in the history of rock.